Right well this is another re-jig of one of my previous posts which covered two Doctor Who stories, Spearhead from Space and Terror of the Autons, however I've decided to devote this post solely to Terror of the Autons, which I will expand on in places (to make the post even longer to read!). So let's get on with it and do the usual and have a look at the story....
So the story begins with the Master (Roger Delgado) landing on Earth where he steals the only existing Nestene energy unit and uses it to transmit a signal into space from a radio telescope. The Doctor and his new assistant Jo Grant (Katy Manning) investigate the theft of the energy unit and soon arrive at the radio telescope where the Doctor receives a warning from a Time Lord (David Garth) that the Master has arrived on Earth. The Master meanwhile has taken over a plastics factory, run by Rex Farrel (Michael Wisher) who he uses his powers of hypnosis to control him, and creates Autons at the factory. The Master makes several attempts to kill the Doctor and Jo all of which fail, firstly by hypnotising Jo into carriyng a bomb back to UNIT HQ, and then also by trying to strangle him by using a radio controlled signal to cause the telephone flex wrap around the Doctor's neck. The Doctor also dedcues that the Master who has been using the Autons to distribute plastic daffodils around the country, plans to set off a radio signal, one of which shoots out a plastic cover which nearly suffocates Jo but he saves her, and there are reports of deaths around the country. The Doctor then travels back to the radio telescope where the Master is intent on re-opening the signal to let the Auton invasion through, and its up to the Doctor to stop him and put an end to the Nestene threat once and for all.
Terror of the Autons it has to be said remains something of a landmark in the show's history on two counts in that it for one introduced the "UNIT family" with the newly introduced Jo Grant and Captain Mike Yates, and also one of the Doctor's most memorable enemies, the Master. The Master is of course one of the best enemies to come out of the programme in a long time as he is a charismatic villain who is every bit as clever as the Doctor. Terrence Dicks the series script editor also alluded to the Master being the Doctor's equivalent of Sherlock Holmes's arch enemy, Moriarty and there are definitely similarities to be found for sure between these characters. The story was also quite important as it saw the show make changes for the better as it needed a revamp after the Quartermass style doom and gloom of Pertwee's first season, although it was a very good season in its own right, the show needed to lighten the tone and pace of what went before and Barry Letts and Terrence Dicks both made the right choice to do so.
Performance wise the story is also pretty good and Jon Pertwee by this time has started to begin to grow into his role and he even makes the Doctor a bit more light hearted than before. Jon's take on the Doctor here is however a bit more arrogant than what went before but he does have some fun with it as well and he has plenty of good moments in the story. And as for a few examples there is the scene where the Doctor first meets Jo Grant and he dismisses her at first mistaking her to be the tea lady. But after Jo accidentally ruins the Doctor's experiment when it catches fire she uses a fire extinguisher to put it out and the Doctor berates her by saying "Three months of delicate work and now look at it, you ham fisted bun vendor!". Then there is the scene where the Doctor is visited by one of the Time Lords who warns him that the Master has arrived on Earth and the Doctor arrogantly says "I refuse to be worried by the Master! He's unimaginative plodder!". Another fun moment comes when the Doctor lays into an official from the Ministry, Brownrose and he angrily says to him "Who's in charge of you pen pushers these days?! Old Tubby Rowlands, is it?!" and Brownrose says "Lord Rowlands is the head of our department". And the Doctor says "I was saying to him in the club only the other day. Wrong sort of chap is creeping into your club, Tubby, I said!". Another good scene comes when the Doctor and the Brigadier enter Farrell's factory office and find it is deserted and the Doctor notices a safe at the end of the room and tries to open it and when he does he finds an Auton in there and yells to the Brigadier "LOOK OUT!!! AUTON!!" as it fires a shot from its handgun and the Doctor quickly kicks the safe shut and locks it. And the Doctor then turns to the Brig and almost smiles and says "They're remarkably persistent aren't they?!". Then there is the moment where the Doctor manages to foil the Master's trap up at the top of the research centre tower as he defuses a small but powerful bomb and as he removes the fuse, Mike enters and says "Is it defused?" and the Doctor says "It is now!". And lastly there is the scene where the Doctor is confronted by the Master who turns up at his lab and the Doctor holds the Master's TARDIS dematerialisation circuit. And the Doctor warns him "If you fire that thing, you will never be able to leave this planet!" and as the Master threatens to kill Jo if he doesn't hand it over, the Doctor thinks about it and says "Touche!" and readies himself to hand it over but is stopped by Jo.
And then we have Roger Delgado, who is terrific as the Doctor's arch enemy, the Master. Delgado brought a great deal of sly and sinsiter charm to the character while at the same time effortelessly coveying the Master's evil and ruthless nature. Delgado has plenty of highlights of his own in the story such as the scene where one of Rex's father's business partners, McDermott (Harry Towb) meets with the Master at the factory and the Master insists that McDermott sit in a big black plastic chair. And the Master barks at McDermott to "Sit down, man!" and as McDermott does the chair engulfs and kills him and the Master stops Rex from doing anything and says "No! I will not tolerate his insolence!". And the Master then tells Rex "The human body has a basic weakness. One which I will exploit to assist in the destruction of humanity!". And further to this scene Delgado has an amusing moment when Rex's father, Farrel Sr (Stephen Jack) shows up and the Master explains to Farrel about how McDermott died and says "Yes he just sat down in this chair and... slipped away". And later after Farrel leaves the factory, the Master puts one of his plastic dolls in Farrel's car and he says to Farrel "I insist. I'm simply trying out a new product!" only later it comes to life and kills Farrel. And lastly there is the scene where the Master finally confronts the Doctor in person in the last episode of the story and the Master delights in mocking the Doctor by saying "You see, Doctor, you're my intellectual equal. Almost! I have so few worthy opponents. When they've gone, I always miss them".
Katy Manning also makes a good impression in her debut as Jo Grant even if she does have some cheesy moments in her performance and it also clear from the get go that Katy and Jon shared a nice chemistry with one another on screen. Katy still has some good moments such as her first scene where she corrects the Doctor who mistakes her for the tea lady "I'm not the tea lady. I'm your new assistant!" and the Doctor looks on disbelief and says "Oh, no!". And the Doctor tries to let her down gently and says "I'm sorry, my dear, but what I need is a scientist" and Jo cheerily says "I took general science at A-level". And later on when Jo asks the Doctor what a cephalopod is (an octopus by the way) he says to her "I thought you took A-level science" and Jo says "I didn't say I passed!". Katy also however does have some cheesy moments as I said in her performance and one example in particular comes when the Doctor tells her that no one is to touch the ugly plastic doll they found that killed Farrel, which is inert at that point, and Jo says "Don't worry I won't go anywhere near it! Yuk!".
As for the supporting cast members, Nicholas Courtney is great again as the Brigadier and he enjoys some good bantering moments with the Doctor. And as an example there is the scene where the Brigadier has a staff meeting and goes over what their plan of action will be to find the Master and the Doctor clearly isn't interested. And the Brigadier sums by saying "I therefore propose that we redouble our security here and concentrate on finding the Master's headquarters" and the Doctor mockingly says "Well on that brilliant conclusion why don't you get on with it!". And the Brig then says "Any further comments, Doctor?!" and the Doctor says as he walks off "I'll let you know as soon as I think of any!". Then there is the scene where the Brigadier saves the Doctor from being strangled by the telephone cable that wraps around him as it is activated by the Master over the phone and the Brigadier says to the Doctor "I'm afraid I cut your connection!". And then there is the somewhat sexist but still amusing line where the Brigadier argues with the Doctor over Jo's appointment as his new assistant and he refers to Lis Shaw (the Doctor's previous assistant) by saying What you need, Doctor, as Miss Shaw herself so often remarked, is someone to pass you your test tubes and to tell you how brilliant you are! Miss Grant will fulfil that function admirably".
Richard Franklin also well in his debut appearance as Captain Mike Yates who would become a regular of the UNIT days and he too has some good moments. And as an example there is the scene where Mike tries to reassure Jo about her actions when she under hypnosis by the Master as she tried to blew them all up and Jo says to him "I'm not a child, you know!" and Mike tells her "Well you're acting like one!". Michael Wisher also provides a very good performance as the weak willed factory owner, Rex Farrel who falls under the Master's control and he conveys Farrel's emotional conflict very well. Wisher also has some good lines in the story and his best line comes after McDermott is killed off by the black chair and Rex then goes over to his intercom, activating it he says to his assistant outside "Sylvia, will you check Mister McDermott's entitlement on termination of employment, please?". And last of all John Levene provides his usual solid turn as the ever trusty Sergeant Benton although his role at this point is still pretty small but he would go on to get more screen time as the season went on, particularly in this season's finale, The Daemons.
Getting onto the producer/director, Barry Letts does a good job here with the story as he once again takes on the dual mantle of producting and directing the story (although only crew were allowed only one credit at a time back then on screen). Letts again provides the story with a good mix of fun and drama and he also allows for some memorable scenes such as the fight scene in the quarry where the UNIT soldiers fight the two Autons dressed as policemen. And Mike Yates get's into their car and knocks one of them off the top of the quarry cliff and it falls way down but it soon get's up again like nothing happened. The score by the regular composer Dudley Simpson is also worthy of mention as he provides a score which is done all on syntheizers, and the Master's theme itself is very effective, memorable and spooky sounding. In fact the whole of the 8th season of the show was done using synthesizers, all scored by Dudley Simpson, who later complained to Barry Letts that he founded it exhausting having to perform the music that way, and in future seasons he resorted to using other musicians and more traditional instruments as well as combination of synths.
As for Terror of the Autons flaws..... well it has to be said there are a few niggles to be found here. For starters the Autons themselves are a bit disappointing here and their facial masks are a bit crap in comparison to the classic creepy manniquin masks they had in Spearhead from Space. So when it comes to the scene where the Doctor pulls one of the Auton's human masks off whilst he and Jo are in the car, it is replaced by a pretty poor looking marble like mask with hollows for the eyes and you can obviously still see the actor's real face behind it! Another snag comes in the form of the Master's sudden change of allegiances (PLOT SPOILER HERE!!!!) when he agrees to help the Doctor prevent the Nestenes from invading Earth simply by the Doctor saying to him "do you really think that thing will distinguish between you and us?!" yet he had spent all that time ensuring they would make it to Earth! And in this moment its almost like the Master all of a sudden had to admit to it like "Oh wait I hadn't thought of it like that!" which in a way quickly negates all the Master had been up to on Earth up to that point and its pretty much a cop out way for the story to finish off the Nestene menace.
Another niggle of the story is the overuse of CSO (Colour Separartion Overlay) which was heavily used in the 1970s to superimpose backgrounds or to create background effects with people in shot and its safe to say that in Doctor Who they overused it to the hilt! And yeah its OK to use it for certain background shots such as the Master climbing up the research centre tower, but he even goes as far as to use it to create a CSO kitchen! And this is in the scene where Farrel's wife suddenly turns around as she hears something, which turns out to be ugly plastic doll springing to life which goes on to bump off Farrel. However at this point you have to ask: why didn't they simply use a kitchen set?! Surely it wouldn't have cost as much as that to build one even back then! But nope instead we get treated to the single worst piece of CSO ever used on TV. Ah well hey ho that's the joy of low budget TV sci-fi!
Anyway those niggles aside Terror of the Autons still remains one of Jon Pertwee's most entertaining stories and in itself it stands as a landmark for the show with its introduction of the Master and the UNIT family as well as Jo Grant. And for those reasons alone, combined with it being a pretty good story anyway, its still well worth checking out.
And with that I shall say to yees goodnight!
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